8 Steps B2B SEO Strategy to Drive Traffic and Value [Free SEO Checklist Included]

As a business, your online presence is crucial. But how do you ensure that your website is optimized for search engines and that you are ranking high in the SERP?  

In this blog post, we will discuss the basics of B2B SEO Strategy along with the SEO Checklist and give you some tips on how to get started. 

What is a B2B SEO Strategy? 

A B2B SEO Strategy is a series of steps you follow, which are designed in such a way to help your business rank higher and hence more traffic share is acquired.  
The strategy and the approach are specifically business-oriented and differ for different business industries. 

How does B2B SEO differ from B2C SEO? 

SEO – Search Engine Optimization 

Definition – A practice of improving a website/webpage to gain its presence and visibility on the Search Engine Result Page, followed by improving the quality and quantity of the website’s traffic when a user searches a query. 

This practice also makes it easier for any search engine, like Google, Bing, etc. to seamlessly read & know the page.  

As a reward, ranks are improved. 

B2C – Business to Customer 

B2C SEO -  A practice of improving a business through SEO strategies that serve directly to its customers/users. 

Here the customers/users for B2C businesses are single individuals & personalities. 

B2B SEO – The customers/users refer to a business. 

 

How to create a successful B2B SEO Strategy? 

Let us start by listing key points: 

1. Publish New Content (Quality Content) or Create New Pages 

2. Do exhaustive keyword research for the main pages (Keywords with highest relevancy) 

3. Optimize the pages  

1. Publish New Content 

Talking about B2B SEO strategy, one of the main reason your domain is not visible on SERP (Search Engine Results Page), while your competitors are ranking is probably that your website is missing some important topics driving traffic to your SERP competitors. 

Hence, you should always look out for the niche that is doing good for our competitors and publish the content around those topics. 

Again, the keywords should exactly align with the intent. 

For example, let us say we want to curate a blog content around Laptops 

The search intent for the keyword laptop is to make a purchase, I.e., buying intent. The top search results on Google are all the eCommerce giants from which one will purchase. 

Now let us search for the keyword - Best Laptops 

All the top search results on Google are the websites that are publishing the content around the Top Laptops to Buy, Best Laptops to Buy, etc. 

Hence, if you want to publish content where you want the users to make a purchase, the main/primary keyword would be different and if you want to make your user aware of your brand and to publish the content which is purely information-oriented, the main/primary keyword would be different.  

The crux is that the keywords should always be selected based on their relevancy, which is the type of content you are going to publish. 

2. Work on the Keywords at Striking Distance 

When a page starts gaining traffic, it simply means that the keywords have started ranking. As per statistics, a major chunk of traffic lands on the top 3 positions on Google, hence the Click Through Rate for the pages from 4th to 10th   is less and drops drastically as we move down the results. 

Technically, it is still good for us as far as we are ranking on the 1st page of SERP or in the Top 10 positions. 

The keywords ranking in the 11th to 20th position on Google are the keywords that we say at a striking distance. These set of keywords fall under the sweet spot where half of the work is already done. Now you will have to search, research, analyze and work upon these keywords that are at a striking distance. 

When employing a B2B SEO strategy, targeting this set of keywords may be a great push to the overall traffic. Once these keywords are captured, and ranked in top positions, the new keywords would be in place of striking distance. 

Hence continuous effort is required for gaining traffic. 

3. Understanding Internal Linking 

Google crawlers love websites that are easy to crawl, navigate, and find, it rewards these websites with higher rankings. 

Putting this into the perspective as a part of B2B SEO strategy, say you have a page A that links to a different page – page B of the same website – yourdomain.com. The moment Google Crawler will crawl page (page A), it will be able to find the linked page (page B). 

This leaves no opportunity for any page not to be in Google’s database. 

As a result, when a user lands on page A, the user is directed to another page linked to page B, with this the bounce rate decreases, average session duration increases indicating Google to reward the page (website). 

What Benefits does B2B SEO Strategy has to offer? 

It is short and simple: 

1. Helps increase brand awareness online 

2. Expansion in the market share 

3. Cost-effective than paid marketing 

4. Better Conversion Rate in a long-term perspective 

5. Return on Investing from organic trust 

When it comes to B2B, the target audience is small, but involves C-suite audiences, the likes of CMOs, CEOs, and CBOs. 

As mentioned, it becomes quite difficult to get the consent of such an audience. Therefore, the content that we add, and the keywords that we target should be on point with the execution just like a pro. 

Why do with need a B2B SEO Strategy? 

As the world is in a continuous motion of more online presence, ‘internet’ is the new competing ring. Every day, new organizations are entering this arena, while at the same time, a bunch of companies have already dominated this modern world. 

Adopting an online concept and competing with the companies with an established search real estate requires a full-fledged plan, hence termed a B2B SEO Strategy. 

 The need for a B2B SEO Strategy includes: 

• A More Professional Audience 

• Complex Sales Funnel 

• Low Conversion Rates 

• Specific Small Audience 

The companies following the SEO steps were able to shoot up their respective businesses right from the initial stage. 

 

The B2B SEO Strategy to Implement 

1. Create a Buyer’s Persona 

A buyer persona is a fictional depiction of an ideal customer, created based on research, qualitative and quantitative capabilities. 

A business can have several buyer personas, each targeting a specific product niche. 

This helps to eliminate the concept of one size fits all concepts. 

2. Understanding the Sales Funnel 

A sales funnel describes the user's journey, while a B2B sales funnel becomes more complex. 

Hence the keyword falling at the bottom of the funnel is the targeted keyword universe. 

The keywords that users search for when they are in a state of buying a product, finding these keywords starts with a seed keyword and handpicking other related keywords. 

Analyzing your competitors who are already ranking on Google and listing down the points contributing to their success. 

Get the key metrics such as the average customer retention period, lifetime value of a customer, the average purchasing time, and the flow of the customers from landing on the page to leaving. 

3. Keyword Analysis  

Keyword research and analysis is the basic and the most important step for any B2B SEO strategy. It forms the foundation of any SEO plan. 

As mentioned above, B2B oriented keywords must be either informative, comparative, or descriptive. Hence, after a thorough competitive analysis, that involves: 

• Immediate Competitors 

• SERP Competitors 

The keywords having the relevant intent, a high CPC (COST PER CLICK) are the ones to go for. 

Note: For any B2B business, the relevant keywords will have a low search volume. 

 

4. Conduct Gap Analysis 

Gap analysis can be described as finding the missing opportunities through your competitor analysis. For example, you can check for the topics that are driving good traffic to your competitor, and then a similar page can be created which is more exhaustive to get it ranked on the SERP. 

5. For Off-Page, you can actively look for high DR (Domain Rating) domains that are linking back to your competitor. Sorting them out and trying to get backlinks for your website is yet another good and-on to drive the traffic. 

Others include UI/UX ideas, navigation style, etc. 

The crux is that competitive analysis is basic, and an essential part of any B2B SEO strategy. 

6. Supporting the Pillar Pages 

This part simply means to support your pre-existing pillar pages through content publishing. 

Let's take an example, you have a pillar page for Covid Supplies, and the products listed are face masks, PPE Kits, hand sanitizers, and other related articles. 

Now create individual pages for each item and then link them directly to the main page. 

This helps you develop a scalable content strategy that one can keep on updating. 

7. Optimization/Re-Optimization 

Google’s Algorithm keeps on changing daily. New concepts, new focused areas come into the picture, and yes, the always-changing user nature to search.  

Hence, it becomes especially important to update and re-optimize the existing content and to curate optimized pages in the pipeline as per the B2B industry trends. 

These involve: 

1. New keywords selection targeting B2B area 

2. Meta Data Optimization 

3. Alt Text to the respective images 

4. H1 Tags 

5. Page Speed Performance 

6. Mobile Friendliness 

7. Simple and easy website architecture 

8. Blog Authority & Credibility Pointers 

Adding content in the form of blogs, articles, guides, and other formats is the major traffic contributor to the website. 

Though this requires exhaustive research, quality writing, and time. But consistency is what will help you reach heights😊 

Adding interlinking, alt text to the images, author’s name, and description will add credibility to your publishing. 

PS: The Formatting should be simply perfect! 

SEO Process for a smooth B2B SEO Strategy 

Above we have discussed everything about what is B2B SEO strategy, the difference, the advantages and more. 

The last thing which we lack is the process, or the SEO steps to follow. Here are some of them: 

1. Optimizing your Content 

Continuously monitoring the performance of the published content, the keyword rankings for the targeted keywords, try to incorporate some missing opportunities that you notice. 

You can add new set of semantic keywords by performing TF-IDF (Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency) (Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency) analysis, analyzing the SERP competitors and adding new headers which originally lacked. 

2. Changing keywords and Search Intent  

The right keyword selection based on funnel, changing time, the search volume, the search intent, and the competition change. Hence, look out for all these set of changes and enhance your content accordingly 

3.Create a Monthly Content Plan 

Try to plan for the upcoming months. Curating a plan one month prior to the month’s start will help to easily align your workdays. These include: 

• Searching for trending content topics 

• Leveraging opportunistic keywords 

• Adding new formats on the website 

• Looking for innovative ideas from your immediate competitors 

• Checking if all internal teams are aligned as per the plan 

Conclusion 

Everyone at some point in their life will want to do a business. But doing it in the right way, with some strategies in place, and expanding their market size is what is required. These B2B SEO strategies will help to rank your business to Google in an easier way. 

Checklist for B2B SEO Strategy 2022 

Website Launch Checklist 

• Setting up Google Search Console 

• Setting up Google Analytics Tool 

• Install Yoast SEO Tool (WordPress) 

• Setting up Bing Webmaster Tool 

SEO Checklist: On-Page 

• Optimizing Meta Data 

• Optimizing the content for E-A-T 

• Optimizing UI/UX and Navigation 

• Optimizing the Images 

• Creating/Updating Sitemap & Submit to Google 

• Optimizing for Sitelinks 

• Optimizing the Videos 

• Adding proper Schema Codes 

• Restricted to only 1 <H1> Tag 

• Optimized interlinking’s 

• Avoid thing content page 

SEO Checklist: Off-Page 

• Get backlinks from high DR websites 

• Broken Link Management 

• Spammy Links Monitoring & Disavow 

• Lost Backlink Management 

Local SEO Checklist 

• Register your company with Google My Business (GMB) 

• Optimizing Logo 

• Adding relevant schema codes 

• Add Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP) on pages & should be consistent across the pages 

• List your domain on the relevant directories 

• Reply to all reviews and comments 

• Add Google Map  

Mobile SEO Checklist 

• Optimize mobile friendliness  

• Check for CTA’s are accessible on the mobile 

• Do the mobile parity audit 

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) 

Q1. What are the top 3 B2B SEO Strategies? 

SEO comprises 3 main departments, and it is a collective effort of all these 3 activities that drives traffic to the website: 

1. On-Page Optimization 

• Keyword Research that aligns with the search intent 

• Meta Title 

• Meta Description 

• Alt Texts 

• Short and Crisp URL structure 

• Mobile Friendliness 

2. Off-Page Optimization 

• Link Building 

• Social Bookmarking 

• Image Submission 

• Video Submission 

• Forum Discussion 

• Unlinked Brand Mentions 

• Off-Site Blog Publishing 

• Article Publishing 

• Question & Answer 

3. Technical SEO 

• Check for HTTP status 

• No Duplicate Content 

• Fixing Crawl Errors 

• Fixing Broken Links 

• Fixing 404 pages 

• Site Speed 

Q2. What are the most effective B2B marketing strategies for targeting small, local business? 

• Local SEO Keyword research 

• Technical SEO for the website 

• Schema Markup 

• Review Generation 

• Local Business Listings 

• Building Local Business Citations 

• Optimizing Google My Business Profile 

Q3. How to select meaningful B2B SEO keywords? 

There are several things that must be in place when doing any keyword research, to extract some genuine keywords. 

These include 

• Selecting the keywords with exact intent 

• B2B keywords will have a low search volume 

• Select the keywords with low keyword difficulty 

• Target long tail keyword 

• Use keyword modifiers 

• Pick keywords from the competitors